Patterns of cooperation between Higher Education and the World of Work

Widening access to labour markets through developing and promoting new or innovative programmes, aimed at reducing traditional gaps between blue collar and white collar respectively.V ocational Education and Training (VET) and Higher Education (HE) has been high on the agenda of policy makers, especially at the European level for years. But how sound are these melodic rhythms written in Brussels or elsewhere when played with the old instruments of national legislations, traditions, funding shortages, and claims between different stakeholders? Our project LETAE (Reinforce the Labour Efficiency of Tertiary Adult Education at universities) focuses on the interface between universities and the "world of work": Subjects of inquiry are programmes for adult learners (who should have finished a first (either VET or HE) qualification), which combine learning at universities and at the workplace. This research report reveals the main findings of a comparative analysis of strategies of Tertiary Lifelong Learning (TLL), educational systems, funding, etc. of such programmes in the 6 participating countries (DE, UK, ES, CZ, TK, and FI). Additionally 3 case studies per country were selected and are sketched out in the report; so findings might not be classified as "representative", but as "indicative"; especially since the distribution of cases in our developed typologies draw a quite clear (and sad) picture.